Blog Archive

25 April 2007

how low can you go?

training was great last night. i got there on the early side, at the end of chi gong & found sifu to be exceptionally chatty so i had fun talking with him on various topics. i got a good stretch in before class started. class was on the small side & it seemed pretty fast to me. a third of the folks there were newbies so they were sent to the back early on. i was trying to avoid a flailing person on a rampage to be in front but somehow ended up #3 in line for a bit. it was fun until i got a stabbing cramp under my left front rib that sent me off the line to catch my breath. then i was back in again for the duration. i had a great stretch too. i am finding that what i really need out of the 3 man stretch is for the others to pull my legs out & hold my feet. i can do the rest. i am getting pretty low on both sides! i have it said it before & i'll say it again, i love the stretch part of training. maybe it's soon time to do the straddle. maybe.
the forms part of class was good, although it seemed also fast. everyone did their form in about a 7 minute period with 4 people on the floor. quan tuo mentioned to me, citing another classmate as an example, that i should go lower in mabu & gongbu. i noticed it all on my own, thanks. i tried to go lower towards the end of class. i find that going lower also has it's disadvantages. i find my backleg collapsing & isn't fully locked if i go that low but i'll work on it. i find many people do that too! in fact towards the end of class during mabu gongbu strikes sifu kept reminding us to lock our legs then he said don't make me call you out by name! after class a bunch of us went to eat & i found that quite a few thought sifu was talking directly at them! i was not alone. the other thing is that quan tuo mentioned a while back that many (including me) do their mabu wrong so i have been trying to correct mine & the cost of that is that i am not as low as i used to be. everyday yields a new thing to remember to work on, to be sharper on. my legs are strong so i should be able to do these adjustments. i find that what i really suffer on is the cardio in the beginning to middle of class.
it may be time to institute some changes. maybe.
more chi! train harder!

1 comment:

Qbertplaya said...

haha...i wrote about the same thing, sort of.